Equality and inclusion

Promoting and celebrating equality in our School

Our School has a large and vibrant community of scientists working at all levels in research, teaching, management and outreach.

We achieved a Bronze Departmental Athena SWAN award in April 2017.

The School of Biological Sciences is committed to promoting a positive and inclusive working environment for all our scientists. We support women at all stages of their career, from undergraduates all the way to professors.

Professor Phil MullineauxHead of school

Institutional award

The University of Essex has a Women in Science Network to support female staff and students in STEM subjects and was awarded the Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award in November 2013 in recognition of its continuing work to support women in STEM.

Resources for staff

There is a wide range of opportunities, resources and support networks available for our staff, both within and outside our University.

Probationary Mentoring

The School has a mentoring policy to support its new academic staff. A senior member of staff is assigned as a mentor to all new academic staff.

For research active staff, one of the key roles of the mentor is to help to de-mystify the ‘rules of the game’ by providing advice on what is worth doing and when, where and how to network, how to develop a career plan, explaining promotion criteria and how to develop a profile within a discipline.

This period of formal mentoring ends when the mentee achieves permanency. Further information about this policy can be found in the staff handbook.

School Mentoring Scheme

A School Mentoring Scheme has been established as a result of an action from the School’s Athena SWAN Bronze Department Award.

This voluntary scheme is open to all academic/research staff and PhD students and aims to support individuals at all stages of their professional or personal development. Mentors will provide support, give advice and guidance on career/personal development and provide opportunities to reflect on progress.

The scheme supports both traditional mentoring with senior staff as well as peer mentoring and can be either long-term or short-term to suit individual needs. All documents are available on the School Mentoring Scheme Moodle.

This workshop will help you to gain an insight into the criteria for permanency and promotion, and the various categories under which candidates are required to provide evidence of activities, responsibilities and achievements. It will also provide helpful guidance and information about the role, remit and procedures relating to the Academic Staffing Committee which oversees these important career processes. The workshop is run on a regular basis and can be booked via HR organiser.